Why We Practice
Wednesday, February 28, 2024 by Billy Roberts | Piano
Daily practice requires motivation.When I talk about daily practice, I am simply referring to a routine that we do four to five days per week. Most students benefit from a couple of days to simply take care of whatever else is going on in their lives. Still, three questions must be considered, even if not spoken: What is our motivation for a daily routine? How much should we practice? Why do we practice to begin with?
I believe that the best motivator is a sense of confidence that one is making progress and doing something worthwhile. Method books provide a steady pace at which beginners and intermediate students can see their progress over time. Interspersing a few challenging repertoire pieces along the way can help them gain a sense of competence. Competence fuels confidence, which fuels motivation. Candy and sticker sheets also help, especially with younger children. Advanced students can sense progress by recognizing that gaps in their technique continue to be filled. Students at all levels know they are progressing as they continue to amass a variety of pieces that they can play for family and friends.
The next question is how much practice time is enough. I recommend 20-25 minute sessions as a minimum daily routine, and this is often enough for beginning and intermediate students. There are two reasons that this works well. First of all, four to five sessions per week is sufficient to develop good habits and technique, but by not pushing for long sessions this helps develop a routine that students can stick with. Secondly, twenty minutes is long enough to strengthen the right muscles if done consistently, but it is a short enough period of time to not promote injury.
I personally love it when I have an hour and a half to two hours to practice in one block, but I’m not constantly playing that whole time. Taking plenty of rests when I sense that any muscles are being overworked, alternating hands during difficult passagework, mentally practicing by occasionally just reading the score without playing, and occasionally getting up for a good stretch are all ways that I get the most from a longer session. For a short session, typically 20 to 25 minutes, a student should spend the first 5 to 10 minutes with scales, Fingerpower, Dozen a Day, or similar exercises. This still allows 15 minutes to focus on the music during the remaining time.
With short sessions being the norm, many busy students wonder when they should do theory. Teachers who give prizes for the number of minutes practiced typically count theory homework as practice time. I feel like if you only have 20 minutes at the piano, then theory is something to be done another time. But, it needs to be done. If you really don’t have any other time, it’s worth taking time away from your fingers one day per week in order to get it done. Thus, there is a balance, and theory assignments should be kept to a manageable length. Most students need some theory taught to them during lesson time. It is not sufficient to simply send the book home and ask them to learn it on their own.
In summary, a balance of method book pieces and challenging repertoire keeps students motivated along with a daily routine that builds confidence. Students should be encouraged to keep up this routine four to five days per week, and a little candy after a good lesson doesn’t hurt. This will lead to steady progress over the long term. In the end, progressing steadily but surely will lead to confident performances. Both the end results and the journey itself should each be a part of why we practice.
Piano - My Musical Foundation
Saturday, September 30, 2023 by Billy Roberts | Piano
Piano has always been the foundation of my musical journey. I just finished an eight week course in elementary piano pedagogy and am looking forward to studying intermediate pedagogy over the next two months, but the greatest takeaways from this course were personal. Although the practices of studying, working with students, and reflection provided many useful tools for teaching beginning piano students, my most important takeaway was in simply recognizing the numerous benefits that I gained from studying piano at a young age. My understanding of musical theory alone gave me a huge advantage in both singing and horn playing. As a music major in college with piano as a secondary instrument, the applied piano lessons that I took further enhanced my musicianship in ways that horn playing alone would not have.
My second key takeaway was in developing realistic practice expectations. Although I advise beginners to practice 5 days a week for 20 minutes, practicing three days per week for an hour at a time works better for me right now. This allows me to spend 20-30 minutes on fundamentals and get myself warmed up well before diving into music. I realized that doing short chunks of time so that I could split playing time between horn and piano actually proved detrimental to both, because I need good blocks of time to focus. So, for now I have three separate hours per week to practice horn and three separate hours devoted to piano practice. I do spend a good deal of time playing piano on the days I’m not practicing, though.
Finally, I learned that taking care of fundamental issues, even if it means slowing down a lesson and taking time away from other things that could be addressed, can actually create space for other aspects of technique to be worked more fully later. I’ve seen this happen several times in the past two months as I’ve worked with my two children and also the beginning piano student in my studio. Whether it’s putting a lesson on hold to address unfinished theory assignments or choosing not to worry about every piece to be played at a lesson so that one trouble spot in the music can be addressed, there are times when dealing with a specific issue clears a major roadblock to a student’s success. I actually encountered this in six years of tutoring math before I decided to dive into teaching piano lessons, and it carries over to all of life. Sometimes the greatest roadblock to success is simply the pressure of time and the inability to stay in the present moment.
